Social Class
Social Class is ‘a division of a society based on social and economic status.’ This is predominantly ‘assigned’ to us at birth and can change based on what we tend to do with our lives. The 5 social classes are ‘lower, working, middle , upper- middle and upper. (1) This I would believe is driven by the concept of money and how much you earn in your life. The ‘working’ class (hence in the name) are the people who earn money through working in there lives, usually labour jobs or minimum wage jobs. It then translates up to middle class which are usually people who are earning more than the minimum wage but not by much. Usually those who have earned their job through higher learning experience, e.g. a specified degree such as Fine art. I would argue that the only other way than working yourself up the social class is to marry a wealthier person in your life inheriting their own wealth.You are divided in society through these categories and I would argue that you would only have higher social status the more wealthier you are. I believe that when you are wealthier you can buy your experiences which increases your own social status as you are able to afford to do things you couldn’t before. This theory is derived from the well known phrase ‘ The rich get richer and the poor get poorer ‘ (3)
Art #1: 2D Pablo Picasso
Picasso painted this piece actually called ‘Social Class’ (2). It is a heart wrenching emotionally captivating piece made by him. He is depicting this drowsy, over-exhausted and fatigued woman in what would be working class in our society. We can see through this piece that this is her daily life , having to do manual labour everyday or most days in order to survive. Picasso has painted this keeping in mind the 20th century society and how most women were stay at home housewife’s. This picture is very captivating as it shows the mental depression this woman is going through to try and live every day, she is jammed into a daily routine that she has to stick with. I would suggest that she was born in the working class area and has been used to doing working class jobs her entire life. The sadness emotion is also depicted through the colours of blues and blacks giving the painting a very lifeless feel to it. Her body posture as-well of being hunched over also depreciated how she is tired. She is also very malnourished, it highlights how she is living on the bare minimum and not in a healthy state. Her also using her own body weight in order to push down on what she is working with highlights her daily task of manual labour. Furthermore the black around her eyes depicts the tiredness she is feeling doing the same job over again. My specialism is photography but even though this is a painting I can take many things away from it. For example the proportions and positioning of the woman and the use of colour can help me portray emotions through my photographs. I think this painting depicts the hard life at the time of being lower in the social class and the tole it can take on your social life and mental state.
Art #2 : 3D Bansky
(Can’t upload )
This piece is a 3D mural believed to be painted by Bansky called ‘no future’ (4). This tackles the issues of social class and capitalism in our society. I thought this would be a nice contrast to the other painting as it is more relevant with our society. It highlights the on going problem of how many young children in our society are now being born into lower class and deemed of having ‘no future’. It highlights the on going argument that you need money to gain experience or have an education. It highlights the rise of costs such as university degrees and it’s harder for the next generation to gain more experience and jobs ‘higher’ than the working class environment. This painting is very captivating as it captures the sadness of the child being born into no future because of their social class. There is irony in this painting as the child is holding a balloon which is cleverly the ‘o’ in no. This is ironic as a balloon would be an object that would bring a child joy and happiness rather than sadness. It just again depicts the child’s sad demeanour and feeling of worthless in society. I also think the bold colour choice of the red in ‘ no future’ really helps stand out to the audience. The red highlights the danger that we are putting some younger generations into as they are being born and bred into lower class and working class environments , missing out on joyful experiences and social situations. This painting shows the dangers of social class in our environment and how we need to put a stop to things effecting it like capitalism and the ever growing inflation of money in our society. Again through my photography I can take this and using the bold colours of red against black and white images helps stand out bold messages. I like using words and phrases in my photography and writing over photos digitally, so this helps me with figuring out how I can create effective messages.
In conclusion, I think both of these artworks highlight the on going theme of social class. I think what I have taken from both of these art works is that the lower and working class really haven’t changed from past generations as there is still sadness when you are born into these lower class. It just highlighting the on going problem of wealth in our society and how it is a problem we still need to solve. It just proved the theory of how the poor unfortunately get poorer but it has been recognised but artists throughout the generations.
Links :
1 ) https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/204497/determines-americans-perceive-social-class.aspx
2 ) https://www.guggenheim.org/learning-through-art/art-investigation/social-class
3 ) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_rich_get_richer_and_the_poor_get_poorer
4 ) https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-11827202.amp